A Birth Story

I never knew building a new house and moving into it were so much like birthing a baby. Saturday night, as I laid in bed at The House On The Hill, trying to relax and fall asleep, it came to me suddenly - I feel like I do after a baby is born!

Not the best pic. This was right after

 the lane got concreted.

Months and months ago we got the "positive pregnancy test" - the deed to a little piece of land. We were going to build a house, and oh! Was it ever exciting to dream. We discussed house plans and got someone to draw up a blueprint. We tweaked it and fine tuned it until, there it was in our hand - the plan for our new house. Reminds me of the day, so many years ago, when we had an ultrasound done and found out our firstborn would be a boy. We practically waltzed out of the doctor's office in wonder and excitement!

Snowmen at The Shack By The Road

Pregnancy is very exciting and thrilling but it is also very long and uncomfortable and trying. So is building a house. I wish there were some way to calculate all the hours we spent working on this house. Hours and hours and more hours. There were tines when it felt like that was all we did and then there were stretches where the house sat waiting patiently for long periods of time.

I remember when we felt those first little wiggles - This was actually happening! First there was a hole in the ground, then the block walls went up and you could actually tell the size and shape.

End of May, 2015

When the walls went up, we really thought we were getting somewhere.

Then came the roof and the shingles and then porches and siding. It was looking good from the outside and some of our neighbors thought we were probably about ready to move in.

They say once the sheetrock is done, you're half way. I believe them.

First piece of sheetrock going up!

As exciting as it was to see sheetrock going up and then getting finished, the amount of work to still be done seemed never ending. Kind of like hitting that point in pregnancy when you're big and uncomfortable and just done. And you still have two more months stretching ahead of you like years.

Finishing a house seems to never end. For the past six months it feels like I have been telling people the same thing over and over, "Yeah, it's getting close!" And three months later, "We're getting there!" Since all but one of my babies have been overdue (one of them by three, unbearable weeks), the comparison is very similar - "Maybe it will be this day!" No. "It could be this day!" No. "I think it's going to be this day!" No. Until you don't even allow yourself to get excited anymore because it's better to expect nothing than to have your hopes dashed yet again.

The trim crew at work

Drop ceiling going in.

One of the coolest things about building and doing it yourself is the skills your children learn. When you're standing at the nursing home singing on a Sunday evening and your child points at the drop ceiling and wonders how long that would have taken, that's just kind of neat! 

And then the day finally, actually, almost unbelievably, comes.

Carpet!!

                     

Four and a half years without closets 

will make this picture really special

We "went into labor" about a month ago when Chris looked at the calendar and said, "We are going to move into the house for your birthday on February 4th." I confess that I quietly timed contractions and didn't get my hopes up.

Cleaning the kitchen

But then it got serious, and there was no looking back. We worked ourselves ragged these last couple of weeks! I shouldn't even say we, because Chris and Isaac put in far more hours than any of the rest of us. When I picked the children up from school Monday, I told them, "Guess what? WE DON'T HAVE TO GO WORK ON THE HOUSE THIS EVENING!!!" They all cheered.

How many, many times did we clean up?? Before...

The past two weeks were excruciating. You know those last hours/minutes of labor? Yeah, like that.

...After

We spent every spare minute finishing the house. Home was just a landing place to dump off our stuff and fall into bed. I'd throw laundry in the washer in the evening and set it to come on at 5:30 in the morning. Then we'd rush everyone off to school and repeat the cycle. Not a very good way to live but it didn't kill any of us, quite.

Packing up the kitchen

Saturday was the crowning moment of all that hard work. What a chaotic, crazy day. In all of my busyness, I nearly forgot that we had to actually - you know - move all this stuff! I was horribly unorganized but we made it. By Saturday night everyone had a bed to sleep in and things were getting reasonably in order.

Laying in bed that night I couldn't go to sleep for the longest time. I'm the same way after a baby. The euphoria and the glow and the overwhelming thankfulness just washed over me in waves and I wanted to sob loudly but my hardworking husband was already snoring and I tried to lay still and not disturb him, so the tears just trickled quietly down my cheeks.

The story wouldn't be complete without adding that the days after moving are also comparable to a birth. The euphoria gives way quickly to reality and adjustments. The overwhelming thankfulness snaps into irritation and tears when you discover you don't have several ingredients you needed for your special, first supper because not everything is moved and you just spoiled the potatoes by using the water that isn't fit to drink yet... I think maybe you should give yourself some time to rest with your feet up even if you don't have a baby to hold as a good excuse. There is still a lot to be moved and even more to get situated and put away. But we are here and it is lovely and I am oh, so very thankful and happy!

My "tree house view" from my dining room

And now I should quit and go take care of my new baby....err....house.

Thanksgiving Eve

It is 'Thanksgiving Eve' and the house is dark and silent, everyone cozy in their beds but me. The fridge is full of food prep for the morrow and the one day of the year when we specifically pause and take note of our blessings.

My heart isn't particularly overflowing at the moment. Not because I have no blessings, far from it! More because I haven't paused to specifically take note.

I was sitting here just now, relaxing in the stillness, and I came across something I wrote during the 500 Words for a week challenge titled "Blessings of four years with 7 people in 726 square feet". With a new house and twice that space just waiting around the corner out of my grasp, I must admit, 726 square feet is not a blessing I have been taking note of too much lately.

So, I thought it interesting that I should have happened upon my writing and that, just maybe, it was no strange coincidence that I should be reminded to take note of the blessing of 726 square feet on the eve of Thanksgiving. I remember a time when 726 square feet was, indeed, a huge blessing to be taken note of and one that I did not take lightly at all!

Five years and four months ago we packed up our belongings and moved our little family from Arkansas to Ohio. For one year we lived in with Chris' parents and then decided to renovate the shop building he had built before we were married. Four years and four months ago we dug our belongings out of dusty, dirty boxes and made these 726 square feet our home. It was amazing to have our own space once again. There was no need to stop and take note of the blessings, my heart was fairly bursting with them!

Time has a way of dulling our memories and I now take every square foot of the 726 for granted. In fact, most of the time lately I chafe at every one of them, knowing that three miles down the road is a house on the hill that promises so many more if only they would ever get completed. And so, tonight as I read over my list of blessings of living in this house, I decided it might be a good thing to stop and take note of, these 726 square feet we call home. Maybe you would like to hear them too...

1) Clean up takes so little time when there's so little space!

2) It cuts down on purchases dramatically. I have no room in my kitchen for all those extra gadgets so I'm not buying them! Same goes for furniture and decor and even, to some extent, clothes...

3) Nobody has the space to go off and do anything by themselves. We're all right here. Together. We hear everything, see everything, know everything...pretty much.

4) There is so much less to take care of. I'm convinced I am far less busy than other women partly because I live in such a small space.

5) It's a great place to teach contentment.

6) It gives an opportunity to cultivate creativity and finding unusual ways to make things work - all the clothes on hangers in the laundry room, bunk bed with full on the bottom and single on the top to accommodate three kids in one room, key board in our bedroom because there's no other space, plastic drawers under short hanging items...the list goes on and on.

7) The little perks - being able to reach anything in the fridge while staying seated at the table, having everything in the kitchen within two step's reach, not needing to gather hangers from hither and yon when doing laundry, and so forth and so on.

8) Hands on examples of the principles of simplicity and contentment lived out for our children in a way that would not have happened other wise.

9) Having only four windows makes the job of cleaning them quite simple (although they still don't get done very often, cough cough).

10) I've had a very valid excuse to not have company over .....wait..... Maybe not so much. I just thought 10 would look better than 9! 😄

Of course, for every pro I could probably name a con. But on this Thanksgiving Eve I am choosing to pause and take specific note of the blessings of 7 people in 726 square feet. The biggest blessing of all is a warm house and the 7 of us all here together and I am so very, very thankful for that!

Happy Thanksgiving to each and every one of you. May you find time to pause and take note tomorrow!

If You Build Your Wife A House

If you build your wife a house, you will almost certainly need to buy some land.

And, if you need to buy some land, it follows that you will need to have lots of money.

If you do not have lots of money, you will search for something cheap.

And, if you search for something cheap, chances are, you'll buy a steep hill.

If you buy a steep hill, your wife will look at it skeptically and say, "Build a house here??"

And if your wife says, "Build a house here??" You will say, "Yes!" And proceed to make a lane.

If you proceed to make a lane, your wife will say, "How am I ever going to get up and down that thing in the winter time??!!"

If your wife says, "How am I ever going to get up and down that thing in the winter time??!!" You will say, "Oh, it's not that bad."

And if you say, "Oh, it's not that bad." Your wife will continue to insist quite firmly that it IS.

If your wife continues to insist that it IS, you will begin to check out concreting the lane and getting a fourwheel drive.

But, if you check out concreting the lane and getting a fourwheel drive, you will begin to wonder how you will afford building the house?

If you begin to wonder how you will afford building the house, you will shelve the lane and start building.

If you start building, your wife will look on and say, "I just can't even believe that we will ever actually live here."

If your wife gives such encouraging support, you will close your mouth and keep working.

And, if you close your mouth and keep working, your wife will look at the progress and say, "Wow. This is getting exciting!"

If your wife thinks it's getting exciting, you will smile and start putting up walls.

If you start putting up walls, chances are pretty good your wife will stop at the bathroom door and say, "Why in the world did we make this bathroom so tiny??"

If your wife fusses about the size of the bathroom, you will sigh and say, "So how should we have done it different?!"

And, if you say, "How should we have done it different?!" Your wife will look at your bedroom with disdain and say, "This bedroom is HUGE! We could have easily moved this wall over a foot and made the bathroom bigger!!"

If your wife says the bedroom is HUGE you will roll your eyes and say, "Just wait until you have everything in the room." And move on to the kitchen.

If you move on to the kitchen, you will need to decide on kitchen countertops.

If you're deciding on kitchen countertops, you will want good ones because you used to make and install countertops.

If you used to make and install countertops, you will search around for the best buy.

And, if you search around for the best buy, you will buy the material up, have them made and get them installed.

If you have them made and get them installed, your wife will walk in the house and try to look pleased and finally say, "That looks terrible with the cabinets! It doesn't go together at all."

If your wife says it looks terrible, you will try to show her it does match and tell her the flooring will tie it all together.

If you say the flooring will tie it all together, she will look at the flooring and say, "Why did we pick that? Now nothing goes together!!"

If your wife continues with this nonsense, you will sigh and keep slogging along on the job.

And, if you sigh and keep slogging along, things will get done slowly, bit by bit.

If things get done slowly, your wife will quietly get more and more discouraged and say things like, "I'm so tired of telling people the same old thing when they ask about the house!" and "We might as well just say we won't get in the house til spring and get it over with!"

If your wife begins to be so discouraging, you might say, "Hey, do you wanna just live in The Shack By The Road and forget it??"

And, if you ask her that question, your wife will say, "No. I really want to live in The House On The Hill."

If your wife says she wants to live in The House On The Hill, you will need to keep building the new house.

And, if you build your wife a house....
well..............

A House Takes Shape.

When we go to church everyone seems to want to know, "how our house is coming along" They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I guess this is a 23,000 word post. This is how our house is coming along....................................... 

 

 A Guest post by: The Builder :)

 

Picture Overload and New House Update

Life has been full to the brim lately. There's been a bunch of this going on this week

A lot of it went in the freezer but we sure enjoyed our share of it like this while it lasted! We also enjoyed a bit of this

And have the piles of sandy clothes and towels and sun kissed faces to prove it.

Someone wondered when I would be posting more pictures of the new house. This post is for you...

The roof got put on a while back, which changed the looks of things!

Most of the windows are in and when my dad was here he did a bunch of dirt work that changed the looks of things again. (That open space is not a garage. It will get filled in eventually - everyone asks.) :)

                  

               A view from the opposite side..

Our first outlet :) And the latest accomplishment.....

....the porch! A friend plans to come help put the porch roof on Saturday and then we'll be ready for shingles.

There's other buildings going up on the house site

I think the builders are as cute as the building!

Now that you are sufficiently updated and on picture overload, I shall run along and leave you in peace.